[GOC-FB-COR] Fort Stockton, Wullham

[evancelt]

With the growing importance of Wullham as the "Breadbasket of Corrington" becoming apparent, the Headquarters of the Corlander Armed Forces thought it wise to build defenses in the settlement.

Named for a war hero from generations past (who happened to be the great-grandfather of Elsabeth Stockton), sprawling Fort Stockton guards Wullham Bay with 16 large shore batteries. The fort also houses barracks for a large contingent of infantry.

Built for GoC Strategic Outposts, to be licensed by Corrington as a Large Fort in Wullham

 

Some BTS shots:

Spoiler

First step was a Duplo base! 37 x 40 Duplos studs = 74 x 80 Lego studs!

Next step was capping the Duplos with Lego bricks. 1 Duplo brick is 2 LEGO bricks tall, 1 Duplo plate is 1 LEGO brick tall, 1 LEGO plate/tile is 1/6 of a Duplo brick tall

After the Duplos were capped with Legos, I added plates on top of the bricks.

Then I started to build out the visible features like rocks and grass

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by evancelt
Updated to add some build process photos

[Count Vroskri]

So many forts being posted this week.. Like usual from you this is great. I see you have taken on board advice from the horse farm to make the shoreline to grass transition more natural. Great work, keep it up! 

[Bodi]

The Corries are building forts too, that's alarming!

I like how it looks, with all these ornaments, nice landscape.

[NOD]

I like the style and decorations of the barracks. It looks good how the various cannon fortifications have been integrated into the landscape.

[Professor Thaum]

Arms race

4 hours ago, Bodi said:

The Corries are building forts too, that's alarming!

 

[Brickwolf]

Great fort!

[evancelt]

Posted some BTS build process shots above. Like many of my other builds, this one started with Duplos underneath to fill space!

 

On 2/20/2021 at 5:02 AM, Count Vroskri said:

Like usual from you this is great. I see you have taken on board advice from the horse farm to make the shoreline to grass transition more natural. Great work, keep it up! 

Thanks! Yes, I wanted to incorporate that beach feedback into this build. I think the SNOT tan wall helps a lot!

On 2/20/2021 at 7:58 AM, Bodi said:

I like how it looks, with all these ornaments, nice landscape.

Thanks! The landscape was pretty much done before I really started thinking about the fort. I tried to make the fort buildings have plenty of fancy ornaments. Once I had built the main building I didn't want to build the fort walls too high because it blocked the view of the building! I built the building in one big push and by the time I was done it was 3am. You can see how the amount of ornamentation drops off the farther you go up the building as I got more tired - we can say that's because the Corlanders didnt want to have to break out the ladders to keep it clean. Because I was tired I didn't end up capping the roof sides with light bley tiles as I had intended, but I guess the little round studs add more ornamentation to the top!

On 2/20/2021 at 10:36 AM, NOD said:

I like the style and decorations of the barracks. It looks good how the various cannon fortifications have been integrated into the landscape.

Thanks! Like I was telling Bodi, I stayed away from tall thick castle-like walls like @CapOnBOBS's builds so that you could still see the building. Less of a fortress, more of a fort. This made it look more like some of the sprawling forts I saw as a kid in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia in the USA.

10 hours ago, Brickwolf said:

Great fort!

Thanks!

Edited February 21, 2021 by evancelt

[Captain Dee]

Beautiful scene. The beaches, the grassy knolls, the rocks, it all looks very fitting for the island. And of course the batteries and fort look great, especially with all the ornamentation on the latter. That staircase is beautiful flanked with the curved slope pieces. And finally, that is one huge base area. I'm impressed with your WIP shots and the relative speed that you're building.

Approved  for the Glory of Corrington!

[Kai NRG]

This is very nice - pleasing choice of colors, great angles on the fort wall (really neat use of lavender, I am definitely making a note of that!), and an impressive amount of soldiers standing around in different positions.  The facade on the fort is also really well done.

[evancelt]

On 2/21/2021 at 8:14 PM, Captain Dee said:

Beautiful scene. The beaches, the grassy knolls, the rocks, it all looks very fitting for the island. And of course the batteries and fort look great, especially with all the ornamentation on the latter. That staircase is beautiful flanked with the curved slope pieces. And finally, that is one huge base area. I'm impressed with your WIP shots and the relative speed that you're building.

Approved  for the Glory of Corrington!

Thanks @Captain Dee! Looking forward to exploring more about life at Fort Stockton in future builds.

RE: Speed, we're still in COVID lockdown in my area, so I have lots of free time once my wife and kids go to sleep (if I don't mind being a little tired the next day).

On 2/22/2021 at 6:31 AM, Kai NRG said:

This is very nice - pleasing choice of colors, great angles on the fort wall (really neat use of lavender, I am definitely making a note of that!), and an impressive amount of soldiers standing around in different positions.  The facade on the fort is also really well done.

Thanks @Kai NRG!

Included my first lime green in a build in this one. It really makes normal green look dark! Next time I may put bright green between the lime and normal green to form a gradient.

I'm also becoming a big fan of medium nougat - it makes the dark tan (which is great too!) look a little lifeless. Med Nougat is my go-to now for dirts and dark tan is for wet sand / sands.

[Ayrlego]

Fantastic build Evan and sorry I am late to the party!

The fort itself is beautifully done. I like the smoothness of the grand building as opposed to the rough farm buildings in this style that have proceeded it. The white is tastefully broken up as to not look too plain and the slate roof looks really good. The landscaping is well executed and the Duplo you used to raise the base pays off in this regard. While I too love medium dark flesh/nougat, I'm not sure about it here - for my personal taste it clashes a bit with the bright greens - but this is a very minor criticism and more of a personal taste thing - it certainly doesn't detract from the build in anyway!. I think one challenge we will face as we explore Panarium is that as we have imagined it as largely treeless, (although not so much in the valleys?) the wide expanses of green plates can tend to look a little bare. Maybe some scattered ground foliage such as leaves or grasses may help to break up the plates a little? I always struggle when using old green as the main landscape colour! Perhaps rather than going bright we might experiment with sand green and tan? Similar to this build? Although that may make it look a little too old world?? Anyway just musing here - as I said this is a fantastic build in a style of fort that we haven't much seen yet but which is probably quite accurate for the time period. Definitely a GoC from me.

[Maxim I]

Really beautifull fort Evan!

I like the white building and its ornaments. Landscaping is also good (but like Ayrlego said, maybe a little bit more foliage would even be better).

And a small personal nitpick, I kinda find the building a bit too small for being a Large Fort. I know the footprint of the MOC is qualifying for a Large Fort, but the fort itself looks more medium to me. I am not discussing the EGS status of being a Large Fort (footprints are correct), just the size of the building not being large enough for my idea of "Large".

[Spud The Viking]

A really nice build, I echo the sentiments of previous comments!

While the main building is fantastic, the rest seems a tad "empty". Maybe some wagons, or tents, or supplies dotted around the place would make it feel full. Even if the troops were stood on the grass outside, that would help. 

Also, I'm loving the map updates!

[evancelt]

9 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

Fantastic build Evan and sorry I am late to the party!

The fort itself is beautifully done. I like the smoothness of the grand building as opposed to the rough farm buildings in this style that have proceeded it. The white is tastefully broken up as to not look too plain and the slate roof looks really good. The landscaping is well executed and the Duplo you used to raise the base pays off in this regard. While I too love medium dark flesh/nougat, I'm not sure about it here - for my personal taste it clashes a bit with the bright greens - but this is a very minor criticism and more of a personal taste thing - it certainly doesn't detract from the build in anyway!. I think one challenge we will face as we explore Panarium is that as we have imagined it as largely treeless, (although not so much in the valleys?) the wide expanses of green plates can tend to look a little bare. Maybe some scattered ground foliage such as leaves or grasses may help to break up the plates a little? I always struggle when using old green as the main landscape colour! Perhaps rather than going bright we might experiment with sand green and tan? Similar to this build? Although that may make it look a little too old world?? Anyway just musing here - as I said this is a fantastic build in a style of fort that we haven't much seen yet but which is probably quite accurate for the time period. Definitely a GoC from me.

Thanks @Ayrlego! While the island may be pretty treeless, the fort builders were able to find two large tree trunks to use for the roof beams! Agreed, the wide expanses of green can look a little bare. Was kind of going for that - a rolling bare hillside look. This build in particular is seaside and I imagine extra windy as a result. Perhaps some rocks and additional vegetation would help in future builds. I liked the upside down 1x1 round plates/flowers you used in the Wullham residence build recently. That would likely help here as well.

Interesting tip about the sand green. I will try that in some upcoming Wullham builds I have planned. I certainly like sand green better than lime green 

4 hours ago, Maxim I said:

Really beautifull fort Evan!

I like the white building and its ornaments. Landscaping is also good (but like Ayrlego said, maybe a little bit more foliage would even be better).

And a small personal nitpick, I kinda find the building a bit too small for being a Large Fort. I know the footprint of the MOC is qualifying for a Large Fort, but the fort itself looks more medium to me. I am not discussing the EGS status of being a Large Fort (footprints are correct), just the size of the building not being large enough for my idea of "Large".

Thanks @Maxim I! I'm imagining Fort Stockton is a massive, sprawling fort and this is just one little (big) vignette of it. There are 16 shore batteries and we only see 2 here! The fort walls don't close behind that fort building, so there may be 20+ other similar builds down the beach a little  Anyway, just saying while the fort may not look big here, that's because I was going for a fort complex rather than a @CapOnBOBS-style bastion. Plenty of space to build near Wullham! I have some additional builds planned that explore additional areas of Fort Stockton, so we'll get to see more not pictured here!

1 hour ago, Spud The Viking said:

A really nice build, I echo the sentiments of previous comments!

While the main building is fantastic, the rest seems a tad "empty". Maybe some wagons, or tents, or supplies dotted around the place would make it feel full. Even if the troops were stood on the grass outside, that would help. 

Also, I'm loving the map updates!

Thanks @Spud The Viking! I also think the map updates help it feel more like a real(ish) place! Good tips re: the empty feeling. I was kind of going for a big massive fort complex with lots of empty room to do stuff, but may have not gotten that across well. I have some additional builds planned that explore additional areas of Fort Stockton, so we'll get to see more not pictured here!

[Ayrlego]

12 hours ago, evancelt said:

lime green 

I have always had a love/hate relationship with lime green!

[Mesabi]

Excellent landscaping evan, and sorry I didn't comment on this earlier. I've got to say, your use of Duplo to build larger builds is definitely an effective technique that I hadn't seen on the Brick Seas before your arrival! 

I really like the style of the main building. It reminds me a lot of the officers quarters at Fort Snelling. (unfortunately, that seems to be the one building there's no good photos on the internet of! ) The Tile work at the base of the entrance is especially well done too. 

I think the one thing I'd definitely say the build is missing, is an interior. I'm always a fan of interiors (and the lack of them is probably my most common critisism!), And I really feel like a partial one could have been done here on the back side of the building. I think that making buildings a facade, and putting a partial interior is a good compromise between the exterior scale, and interior scale of Lego builds, and it would have been a great finishing touch here. That's just me however, and the build is fine without it!

It also could use a bit more action, there's a lot of kind of empty space that could have used a bit more detailing. Maxim made a bit of a point about the fort looking a little small in comparison to the landscape. 

All in all, the build looks excellent though, and it's certainly a testament to your talents. Great job!